XRP has been on a strong run lately, jumping 60% in the past month and beating out big names like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Dogecoin. But the rally stirred up some confusion. Popular media figure Dave Portnoy sold his XRP, thinking that Circle, the company behind stablecoin USDC, was competing directly with Ripple.

That assumption turned out to be wrong, and costly, as XRP surged another 38% in just two weeks after his sale. However, this came just after Ripple had officially applied for a national banking license with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), showing it’s serious about stepping into traditional finance, just like Circle is trying to do.Crypto lawyer John Deaton stepped in to clear the air, stating definitively that XRP, the token, is not in direct competition with Circle. He emphasized that Ripple, the company behind XRP, is entering the stablecoin market with its new asset RLUSD, not XRP itself. Deaton reiterated that while Ripple and Circle operate on the same fintech infrastructure layer, XRP is a digital asset designed for liquidity and cross-border payments, not a stablecoin rival.